"THERE will be no money at ATMs, no fuel at filling stations and no food at supermarkets."

These threats were made by the secretary general of the Professional Transport and Allied Workers' Union, Reckson Baloyi. After a weekend that saw consumers stranded for cash at ATMs, his threat should not be taken lightly.

Yesterday the banking sector was left with egg on its face after it said that the strike by cash-in-transit employees, which started last week, was over.

Baloyi said there was no settlement agreement with the cash-in-transit employers as the deal was signed by individuals who did not have a mandate from a union.

"Two individuals from the Motor Transport Workers' Union signed a deal with their employers as individuals and not as a union .

"We agreed with the Motor Transport Workers' Union that the unions would not be part of the agreement. The strike continues as the parties who were supposed to settle include the Road Freight Employers' Association," Baloyi said.

Baloyi said the union was close to concluding a deal.

"The employer is now offering 10%. The workers have a problem with the current deal because the employer is offering a 9.5% increase from March 2013 and an additional 0.5% will be given in September. But the workers don't want that," Baloyi said.

The South African Transport & Allied Workers' Union (Satawu) spokesman Vincent Masoga accused the banks of signing a fraudulent settlement agreement with the workers.

Supermarkets said they would put measures in place to avoid a situation where outlets run out of food.

"The Shoprite Group has put various contingencies in place to minimise any effect of future strike action affecting supplier deliveries as far as possible," said spokeswoman Sarita van Wyk.

"The group manages its own extensive supply chain and therefore is able to maintain service levels to stores on the majority of products for the foreseeable future," she said.

Tomato, onion and avocado producer ZZ2 spokesman Clive Garreth said the strike has had a small impact as the company uses its own fleet of trucks to transport crops.

"The volumes are currently low and we have not been required to outsource trucks," he said.

Chief executive of the Consumer Goods Council, Gwarega Mangozhe, said: "We are engaging with our members to determine the impact of the strike on their businesses."

Capitec Bank spokesman Charl Nel said the bank "definitely experienced problems over the weekend. However, as I am talking to you, we have made arrangements and our ATMs are being replenished".

He advised consumers to consider withdrawing money from supermarket tills. "People need to think creatively," he said.

"They can swipe their cards and withdraw money from Shoprite and Pick n Pay. As the strike has also resulted in cash-in-transit vehicles not collecting money from supermarkets, withdrawing cash there does alleviate the problem."

Banking South Africa spokeswoman Luyanda Tetyana said cash shortages were likely to hit ATMs in rural areas.

"There are no major problems in urban areas at this stage and the ATMs that were affected over the weekend were minimal," she said.

Tetyana said it would be difficult to ascertain the number of ATMs that ran dry over the weekend.

FNB sent its clients a text message at the weekend warning them about cash shortages.

"Due to the transport strike some FNB ATMs may run out of cash," read the SMS.